Galaxy make it official: Guillermo Barros Schelotto is team’s new coach
The Galaxy’s four-month-long search for a coach officially ended Wednesday when the team announced it had signed former Boca Juniors manager Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
The Los Angeles Times reported last week that Schelotto had accepted the job. He will be introduced Thursday afternoon at a news conference at Dignity Health Sports Park.
Schelotto, 45, becomes the team’s fifth manager in 26 months, replacing interim coach Dominic Kinnear, who led the team through the final six games of the 2018 season after Sigi Schmid was fired in September.
Schelotto takes over a team that has missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time in a decade and hasn’t played in an MLS Cup final since 2014, the longest drought in franchise history.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for me and I am excited to get to work,” Schelotto said in a statement issued by the club. “The Galaxy have long been the standard in MLS and I am ready to push the club to new heights.”
Schelotto, an Argentine, began his managing career with Club Atlético Lanús of Argentina’s Primera División in 2012 and guided it to a Copa Sudamericana title a year later. He moved to Boca Juniors, Argentina’s second-most successful team, in March 2016 and won league titles in each of his first two seasons.
As a player, Schelotto won six league titles and four Copa Libertadores in 10 seasons with Boca Juniors before signing with the Columbus Crew in 2007. In Columbus, he won an MLS Cup, two Supporters’ Shields and was named league and MLS Cup MVP in 2008 when he played for Schmid.
“After a comprehensive search, domestically and internationally, we believe Guillermo will be a landmark signing for this club,” Galaxy general manager Dennis te Kloese said. “Guillermo is a proven winner who has experience coaching, playing and winning for big clubs.”
Last month, the Galaxy were close to signing former Portland coach Caleb Porter but those negotiations fell apart. Terms of Schelotto’s contract with the Galaxy have not been announced, but a person with knowledge of the deal said it is longer in length than the two-year deals the team gave its last coaches, Schmid and Curt Onalfo.
Schelotto is the second Latin American-born coach in Galaxy history after Ecuadoran Octavio Zambrano, who led the team to a league-record 24 wins in his only full season.
kevin.baxter@latimes.com | Twitter: @kbaxter11
